Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: According to informaion received by Daily Times, from reliable sources, the Quaid-i-Azam University (QAU) administration has decided to withdraw the decision of giving land to the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE).

The decision was made as a strong resistance came in a referendum conducted by the varsity’s Academic Staff Association (ASA) on Tuesday. According to the available results of the referendum 147 (83per cent) listed academics out of a total of 177 cast votes the proposal to giving land to the PIDE was opposed, whereas only 29 (16 per cent) ASA members cast votes in favor of giving the land.

Following the results, the wise administration of the QAU decided to void the proposal of its 17 acres land from giving it to PIDE.

On June 23 a Joint Task Force (JTF) was devised by the varsity to deal with the said land issue. The JTF spokesperson, Dr. Ilhan Niaz, confirmed the withdrawal decision in an email message. “In the consequence of a meeting held between the PIDE VC (Dr.Asad Zaman) and the Planning Minister(Ahsan Iqbal), as a result of the referendum, it was directed to the PIDE to withdraw the proposal (acquiring land from the QAU to build its campus) adding that the JTF had nothing further to do. When its 30 working days time limit runs out it will stand automatically ceased”, Naiz quoted in the message.

He further stated that it was decided that the PIDE would also build a new campus at Sector H-11 but the current location on the QAU Campus of the PIDE would be retained.

He added in the message that (according to the meeting findings) “The QAU will not receive the funds allocated to the PIDE for acquiring land (Rs. 618 million) and it will not receive the current PIDE building, valued by the PD at Rs. 200 million”.

Earlier last month, an online referendum was conducted by the QAU Alumni Association Pakistan for getting the views of the old students of the QAU. A majority of the students opposed the handing over of the land. They participated in the referendum through Facebook, What’s App and mobile SMS.

According to the available results of that referendum, a total of 2924 alumni members actively participated in the poll. Out of them 113 people supported the proposal of leasing the land to the PIDE while 2811 opposed the idea.

Earlier, the Vice Chancellor, Dr.Javed Ashraf, said in an official statement that the proposal of land was a goodwill gesture of the Planning Commission to the QAU.

He said that the relocation of the PIDE campus from one part of the QAU to another part of did not amount to “selling” the QAU land.

But on the other hand the staff opposed the proposal because they were of the view that through the approval of this proposal, a legitimate right would be set for the government and the non-government organisations to build their campuses on the QAU land after paying a small sum of money.

It is pertinent to mention here that according to the informed sources, the majority of forums in the varsity including its syndicate — the internal apex decision making body of the QAU, resisted the proposal of ‘selling’/ ‘relocating’ the land to the said institute.

According to the sources, 650 acres of the QAU land were already under adverse possession and encroached by the local villagers. Since 1977 the PIDE is functioning at a building established on a four acre land patch of the QAU. The land is being availed on a “100-year free of cost lease agreement” between both the institutions. The Higher Education Commission in November 2006, granted a degree awarding status to the PIDE.